WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—The House of Representatives adjourned this evening after the legislative body collapsed from exhaustion brought on by hours of doing its job.

Hundreds of congressmen complained of headaches, dizzy spells, and extreme fatigue after putting in what sources called “a six, maybe seven-hour day.”

With the nation headed over the fiscal cliff, there was no indication when Congress might reconvene, since many of its members had to be hospitalized after what was described as their near-total physical meltdown.

According to Dr. Davis Logsdon of the University of Minnesota Medical School, “Being forced to listen, compromise, and act like adults for minutes at a time was more punishing than these people could bear.”

Dr. Logsdon said that the gruelling ordeal of doing their jobs would likely keep members of Congress in the hospital for weeks.

“I don’t see these people getting back to work until February at the earliest,” he said. “And that’s great news for this country. Happy New Year, America.”

Sunday, December 30, 2012

Dow Jones Yearly Bullish Reversal 12567

The numbers are always the numbers. The amount of voter fraud is off the planet. Obama won in every state that did not require a Photo ID and lost in every state that did require a Photo ID in order to vote. Some places all votes went to Obama and none at all to Romney as in Philadelphia. But this is merely a sign of the times. During the elections of 53BC, interest rates in Rome doubled because of the amount of borrowing to pay bribes. Then Caesar had to revise the calendar because the high priest had been bribed to insert so many days to postpone elections that what should have been winter was then summer. And we think elections are ever going to be fair?

The interesting thing is the Dow Jones has a Yearly Bullish Reversal at 12567. Electing this will not be an immediate buy signal on the daily level, but this is warning what we have been talking about. Yes there has not been a lot to do. We are in a holding pattern churning like butter back and forth, This signal is suggesting that the low is indeed in place and that we will see higher highs.

In other words, capital will start to shift from PUBLIC to PRIVATE. Keep debt investment as short as possible. US will be the last to go, but still be careful with MUNIs. Interest Rates should start to rise in 2013. Once this takes place it will reveal that the emperor has no clothes. The Fed will be unable to keep rates low. The banks have been enjoying a huge spread paying nothing to depositors – 0.5% for 3 years while demanding 4% for 3 years fully collateralized loans..

We will report after Year-end what buy and sell signals we have for the upcoming year. It looks like the August 7th ECM date will be important.

New documents prove what was once dismissed as paranoid fantasy: totally integrated corporate-state repression of dissentIt was more sophisticated than we had imagined: new documents show that the violent crackdown on Occupy last fall – so mystifying at the time – was not just coordinated at the level of the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, and local police. The crackdown, which involved, as you may recall, violent arrests, group disruption, canister missiles to the skulls of protesters, people held in handcuffs so tight they were injured, people held in bondage till they were forced to wet or soil themselves –was coordinated with the big banks themselves.

FBI Documents Reveal Secret Nationwide Occupy Monitoring

http://www.justiceonline.org/commentary/fbi-files-ows.html

The document – reproduced here in an easily searchable format – shows a terrifying network of coordinated DHS, FBI, police, regional fusion center, and private-sector activity so completely merged into one another that the monstrous whole is, in fact, one entity: in some cases, bearing a single name, the Domestic Security Alliance Council. And it reveals this merged entity to have one centrally planned, locally executed mission. The documents, in short, show the cops and DHS working for and with banks to target, arrest, and politically disable peaceful American citizens.

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was hospitalized on Sunday with a blood clot stemming from a concussion she suffered earlier this month, a State Department spokesman said.

Mrs. Clinton, who canceled most of her public events in recent weeks because of her concussion, was at a follow-up exam Sunday when doctors discovered a blood clot, according to Philippe Reines, a spokesman for Mrs. Clinton.

“She is being treated with anticoagulants and is at New York-Presbyterian Hospital so that they can monitor the medication over the next 48 hours,” Mr. Reines said in a statement.

Negotiations to reach a last-ditch agreement to head off large tax increases and sweeping spending cuts in the new year broke down, at least temporarily, on Sunday after Republicans requested that any deal include a new way of calculating inflation that would lower payments to beneficiaries programs like Social Security and slow their growth.

A Senate Democratic aide with knowledge of the talks cautioned that they could restart. And Republican officials hinted that the Republican position is not set in stone. But for now, the Democratic aide said, talks have stopped.

Senator Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, went to the Senate floor a little to say that Republicans had made their last offer at 7:10 the night before and had yet to receive a reply.

“I’m concerned about the lack of urgency. I think we all know we’re running out of time,” he said.

To that, Senator Harry Reid of Nevada, the Senate majority leader, declared, “at this stage, we’re not able to make a counter offer.”

http://fff.org/2012/12/27/the-national-security-states-embrace-of-dictatorships/What brutal dictatorships has the U.S. national-security state supported since its establishment in 1947? The list is a long one.

The list goes on and on, in Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, and Africa. And it’s not just an aberration. Support of brutal dictatorships has long been an integral part of the U.S. national-security state. In fact, the national-security state actually trained many of the Latin American torturers in the art of torture at its infamous School of the Americas, which even had its own written torture manuals.

Meanwhile, when the question is asked, “Why do people hate us?” many mainstream Americans continue to automatically mold their minds to the official line of the U.S. national-security state: “They hate us for our freedom and values.” They simply block out of their minds the possibility that people who have suffered horribly under brutal dictatorships, including arbitrary arrest, torture, indefinite detention, murder, disappearances, censorship, and other such things, might hate the United States for having supported and even enabled their tyranny. Such Americans just keep repeating to themselves that the military and the CIA are over there defending “our rights and our freedoms” and “spreading democracy.”

The Rising Tide of Political Change

At the Berlin Conference, we provided an overview that shocked many. Most people had paid not much attention to separatist movements that were popping up throughout Europe from Scotland, which comes up for a vote in 2014, Britain talking about leaves the EU, right down to Spain. The major trend everyone has just assumed was the “unification” of Europe was in play. In our Berlin Materials (soon to be made available for non-attendees), the trend beneath the headlines is anything but unification. There is a rising trend of disunity and there are even those in Texas starting to make noise about separating from the USA.

This deunionization is actually part of the Cycle. Just posted you will find,BE SURE TO READ THIS ONE:They Watch Everything – But Why? The Rising 3rd Party,explaining the behavior of government in light of the clinical findings of Stanley Milgram. Politics is starting to meltdown. Both the Democrats who are Marxists and Republicans who are confused and ready to start handing out flowers in airports begging for support for what purpose they do not know, are leading us down the toilet at rapid pace. Meanwhile, the bureaucrats are trying to strangle the chicken by the neck to get that last golden egg.

We are fighting beliefs. It matters not if we agree with those beliefs, all that matters is what THEY (opponents) believe in something even if they are confused. Adds are being attached to YouTube videos preaching to join them to hunt down and tax the rich so they do not have to pay. Nobody seems to have read Atlas Shrugged. What happens if those who produce and create jobs go on strike and say enough is enough? They are doing that by hoarding their cash and waiting to invest. Liquidity has collapsed in Europe and America as capital sits with record levels of cash befuddled without a clue of where we are headed.

While the chart on the collapse of the Roman Monetary System has been illustrated many times on this site, behind that stands the breakup of the Roman Empire, which is also largely overlooked by most historians regarding its role within the cycle and its causes. The Roman Empire actually split into three parts because of the collapse of the monetary system. Economics is the great mover and shaker of society. It forms nations by synergy to cause people to come together, but when politics turns nasty and corrupt extracting from the people more than they BELIEVE is fair, economics becomes the great destroyer as well, In Europe, there was the Gallic Empire that broke away from Rome led by Postumus (259-268AD) composed at first of Britain, France (Gaul) and Spain. In the East, there was the Palmyrene Empire led by Queen Zenobia who has been the inspiration for all the various Warrior Queen movies and cartoons.

Here is a coin of Postumus. It portrays him on the reverse as the great restorer of the economy and security of those who had enough of taxes and nonsense from Rome.History repeats because the passions of man never change. Separatism is on the rise as is the trend toward the rise of a third party for 2016 based on bottom-line economics,

http://rt.com/news/obama-iran-latin-america-091/US President Barack Obama enacted a law on Friday targeting Iran's alleged influence in Latin America. This comes as Washington already wages a “covert war” against Iran, according to researcher Soraya Sepahpour-Ulrich.

The act also calls on the Department of Homeland Security to bolster surveillance at US borders with Canada and Mexico to “prevent operatives from Iran, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, its Quds Force, Hezbollah or any other terrorist organization from entering the United States.”

While most of us watch in complete disgust as our leaders in Government grandstand and play politics before inevitably kicking the can down the road on meaningful fiscal reform, Obama signed an Executive Order this weekend mandating nice pay raises for all Federal employees. Think about that the next time you are in a Government office waiting for some moron to finish up his/her personal phone call before to do their job and help you: Obama Orders Federal Pay Hikes

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Howls of protest filled the halls of the U.S. Senate today as dozens of Senators expressed their outrage at having to work through the weekend to save the United States from financial Armageddon.

“We’re hearing a lot about the country plunging back into recession and millions of people being thrown out of work,” said Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Kentucky). “What we’re not hearing much about is how our Sunday is being completely and irrevocably ruined.”

Senator McConnell said that when President Obama called the Senate back to work on a budget deal this weekend, “At first I thought he was kidding. Not only have I never worked on a weekend, I’ve never met anyone who’s done such a damn fool thing.”

The Senate Minority Leader added that “if saving this country means working Saturday and Sunday, then I’m not sure this is a country worth saving.”

“Yes, I know that the fiscal cliff is a ticking time bomb that could destroy the U.S. economy for years to come and take the rest of the world with it,” he said. “I also know that Sunday is Week seventeen of the N.F.L. season and now I’m missing all my games.”

Mr. McConnell said that while “saving the nation may be important to some people,” he worries that forcing the Senate to work on a weekend is setting a dangerous precedent.

“For years, people have run for Congress because they knew that serving here was synonymous with not working,” he said. “If that’s going to change all of a sudden, a lot of us are going to feel very betrayed.”

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was injured, and a top US Navy Seal Commander killed when their C-12 Huronmilitary passenger and transport aircraft crash landed nearly 3 weeks ago in the Iranian city of Ahvaz near the Iraqi border.

Within seconds of the C-12 Huron crashing, this report continues, Iranian emergency and security personal responded freeing the victims, including Secretary Clinton who was reportedly unconscious and “bleeding profusely.”

After emergency aid was given, GRU agents stationed in Iran state that another US military flight was dispatched from Bahrainto Ahwaz which evacuated all of those wounded and killed in the crash including Secretary Clinton.

US media reports state that Secretary Clinton will return to work next week after her having suffered what they describe as a “nasty bout with stomach flu”and a “concussion” which have kept her missing from public view the past three weeks.

Saturday, December 29, 2012

In the Western world truth no longer has any meaning. In its place stands agenda.

Agenda is all important, because it is the way Washington achieves hegemony over the world and the American people. 9/11 was the “new Pearl Harbor” that the neoconservatives declared to be necessary for their planned wars against Muslim countries. For the neoconservatives to go forward with their agenda, it was necessary for Americans to be connected to the agenda.

Friday, December 28, 2012

Fiscal Cliff & More Nonsense

The lawsuit by Hedge Funds against Porsche for manipulating Volkswagen shares was dismissed in NY State Court, while the Feds is still going and in Germany they charged directors of Porsche with insider trading. The charts do not support any such manipulation – just sour grapes (see PDF Volkswagen-Porsche).

The real manipulations of our future continues in Washington. The markets are pausing because as usual the politicians are incapable of ever doing the right thing. Obama is hell bent on following France down the toilet and Boehner is going along for the ride.

House Republicans are hoping Obama may offer to extend the Bush-era tax rates for incomes under $400,000, which is where he was before negotiations blew up. Obama has been pushing for a threshold at $250,000 while Republicans insist that it be set at $500,000. Even France is 1 million Euro. The Republicans are also hell bent on raising taxes because they know there is no money.

Republicans are praying for an extension of the current estate tax, which is a 35 percent rate over a $5 million threshold. Obama wants a 45 percent rate on a $3.5 million threshold. However, even the congressional Democrats are afraid of this one.

Obama wants an extension of unemployment benefits and various tax breaks for businesses and lower-income workers. The Republicans do not want to include the infrastructure funding that Obama has requested to help “stimulate” economic growth, which of course it will not do. The current payroll tax cut is also due to expire, meaning that individuals would see larger withholdings in their paychecks.

If a deal is reached, this would delay sequestration, which if left in place would result in roughly $1 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade since both sides could not agree on what to cut. It would leave the debt ceiling issue unresolved just to keep the drama for the financial markets and the press to sell papers. The Republicans hope to keep this as leverage with the Democrats to secure additional spending cuts and entitlement reforms. Sources on the Hill say this will most likely take place keeping it politics as usual.

Americans are living in an Orwellian state argue Academy Award-winning director Oliver Stone and historian Peter Kuznick, as they sit down with RT to discuss US foreign policy and the Obama administration’s disregard for the rule of law.VIDEO

Both argue that Obama is a wolf in sheep’s clothing and that people have forgiven him a lot because of the “nightmare of the Bush presidency that preceded him.”

“He has taken all the Bush changes he basically put them into the establishment, he has codified them,” Stone told RT. “It is an Orwellian state. It might not be oppressive on the surface, but there is no place to hide. Some part of you is going to end up in the database somewhere.”

President Obama said Friday evening that progress was made in make-or-break talks on the fiscal crisis and pronounced himself cautiously “optimistic,” as Senate leaders worked furiously toward an agreement to avert the worst of the economic punch from landing Jan. 1.

But after a one-hour meeting with Congressional leaders at the White House, Mr. Obama warned that if the two sides don’t agree on a bill, he will urge the Democratic-controlled Senate to put forward a measure anyway, in essence daring Republicans in the House and Senate to block a floor vote on tax cuts.

“I believe such proposals could pass both houses with a bipartisan majority as long as both leaders will allow it to come to a vote,” Mr. Obama said. “If members want to vote no, they can.”

WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—The international terror group known as Al Qaeda announced its dissolution today, saying that “our mission of destroying the American economy is now in the capable hands of the U.S. Congress.”

In an official statement published on the group’s website, the current leader of Al Qaeda said that Congress’s conduct during the so-called “fiscal-cliff” showdown convinced the terrorists that they had been outdone.

“We’ve been working overtime trying to come up with ways to terrorize the American people and wreck their economy,” said the statement from Al Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri. “But even we couldn’t come up with something like this.”

Mr. al-Zawhiri said that the idea of holding the entire nation hostage with a clock ticking down to the end of the year “is completely insane and worthy of a Bond villain.”

“As terrorists, every now and then you have to step back and admire when someone else has beaten you at your own game,” he said. “This is one of those times.”

The Al Qaeda leader was fulsome in his praise for congressional leaders, saying, “We have made many scary videos in our time but none of them were as terrifying as Mitch McConnell.”

As for the future of Al Qaeda, the statement said that it would no longer be a terror network but would become “more of a social network,” offering reviews of new music, movies and video games.

In its first movie review, Al Qaeda gave the film “Zero Dark Thirty” two thumbs down.

“America Has Become a Piñata...”By Addison Wiggin[This article originally appeared in the Daily Reckoning on Monday, May 7, 2012]

“America’s national government has moved way beyond a political spoils system,” wrote Charles Goyette in his book The Dollar Meltdown. “A spoils system leaves the host alive so that a politician’s occasional ne’er-do-well brother-in-law can be put on the payroll.”

In contrast, Goyette suggested, “America has become a piñata: Everybody gets a crack at it. Presidents and other elected officials pass the big stick around as a reward to those who help keep them in charge of the piñata party.”

Goyette’s book came out in 2009. Since then, we have learned that the party is even more debauched, nay demented, than he ever imagined. And you, dear reader, were not invited...

It turns out Federal Reserve officials hold regular meetings with well-connected insiders, tipping them off to future Fed moves. On Aug. 15, 2011, Chairman Ben Bernanke clued in an economist named Nancy Lazar about “Operation Twist” — the Fed’s attempt to bring down long-term interest rates.

Ms. Lazar’s clients, according to The Wall Street Journal, pulled down double-digit returns on 10-year Treasuries between the time of that meeting and the time Operation Twist was unveiled to the public on Sept. 21. Sorry you missed out.

Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson sat down for lunch with hedge fund managers on July 21, 2008, and informed them a federal takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac was imminent. Ten days earlier, he swore up and down to Congress no such takeover was in the works.

The takeover, in fact, occurred on Sept. 6 — giving the hedge fund managers their own handsome payday in a six-week span. Again, you were excluded.

Before you object too loudly, we daresay you might wish to consider the consequences.

The Repeal of Habeas Corpus? When Free Speech No Longer Matters

On December 31, 2011, President Obama signed the Department of Defense Authorization Act into law. This is normally the routine annual budget for the Pentagon. But inserted into this year’s bill is language giving the president the authority to use the military to imprison terrorism suspects — including US citizens — indefinitely, and without charges.

In other words, the “great writ” of habeas corpus is in danger of repeal. No longer would the government have to justify to a judge why it holds someone in custody.

“Take away this great writ,” writes The Future of Freedom Foundation’s Jacob Hornberger, “and all other rights — such as freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, gun ownership, due process, trial by jury and protection from unreasonable searches and seizures and cruel and unusual punishments — become meaningless.”

Without habeas corpus, you could be thrown in prison for the “terrorist” act of criticizing the government and the government would never have to declare the precise reason it hauled you away. And in theory at least, the First Amendment would still be in force!

“This defense bill,” says The Rutherford Institute’s John Whitehead, “not only decimates the due process of law and habeas corpus for anyone perceived to be an enemy of the United States, but it radically expands the definition of who may be considered the legitimate target of military action.”

“This bill will not only ensure that we remain in a perpetual state of war — with this being a war against the American people — but it will also institute de facto martial law in the United States.”

135 SWAT Raids per Day: “Life Goes on, But It Is Debased...”

Rampant corruption and the apparatus for wide-scale repression: These are the hallmarks of what military theorist John Robb calls “the hollow state.”

“The hollow state has the trappings of a modern nation-state (‘leaders,’ membership in international organizations, regulations, laws and a bureaucracy), but it lacks any of the legitimacy, services and control of its historical counterpart,” Robb wrote in 2008. It is merely a shell that has some influence over the spoils of the economy.

“The real power,” Robb continues, “rests in the hands of corporations and criminal/guerrilla groups that vie with each other for control of sectors of wealth production. For the individual living within this state, life goes on, but it is debased in a myriad of ways. The shift from a marginally functional nation-state in manageable decline to a hollow state often comes suddenly, through a financial crisis.”

It is in this context that the growing “militarization” of police looks even more ominous than it does on the surface.

The Pentagon has distributed $2.6 billion in military surplus to local police agencies since 1997. Thus do towns of only a few thousand people have their own SWAT teams. Time was their use was limited to hostage-takings and other high-stakes situations. SWAT raids nationwide numbered only 3,000 per year in the early 1980s, according to University of Eastern Kentucky criminologist Peter Kraska.

Nowadays, SWAT teams are used to serve routine warrants. By the time Kraska stopped counting in the mid-2000s, the annual number had exploded to 50,000 — an average of more than 135 per day.

What happens when the tinder-dry combination of piñata-party corruption and a police-state structure meet the spark of violence?

We don’t know where all this is going... but we know it makes us uneasy...which is why we are increasingly interested in casting our gaze for investment opportunity far, far away from US shores.

The US remains a land of (some) opportunity, but it has lost its monopoly.

President Vladimir V. Putin said Thursday that he will sign into a law a ban on adoptions of Russian children by American citizens, retaliating against an American law that punishes Russians accused of violating human rights and dealing a potentially grave setback to bilateral relations.

http://www.jsmineset.com/2012/12/26/gold-as-we-approach-the-new-year/

Gold As We Approach The New Year

1. Gold did not fall on its own gravity. It was forced lower.
2. That take down had a distinct pattern outlined by CIGA Richard’s note. It was high velocity, high volume offering at a market period of illiquidity. The form is a straight line down in a very short period of time.
3. This pattern is the hallmark of those seeking a lower price for gold.
4. The limit to this strategy exists in two things. The first is when the cash market fails to fully respond to the paper takedown. The second will be apparent in the form of a takedown that will present themselves. Those takedowns are short on lower volume. Seeking profits, shorts that are only hangers on will seek to duplicate the strength of the $1800 – $1775 – $1750 take down but run into cash market demand. This will be the price that pleases Asian demand promised to us from China. The paper market will not be able depress the cash market penny to penny.
5. The first signs are definitively in that the long war conducted by the US and GB against the euro has been lost. The euro is in a new birthing process, against all odds, as rising into the category of reserve demand.
6. Euroland and all the BRICs have been buyers of gold for reasons not motivated by emotion, but based on events yet to occur.
7. I have assured you that gold is migrating back into the monetary system, not as convertible, but rather as an alarm by price function. The price will be determined in the cash market as a product of speculation concerning a global M3.
8. Since construction in monetary science requires destruction, first the volatility of gold is going to be significantly more violent than even I anticipated.
9. The magnets at $2111 and floating around $4000 may simply be grade one of an educational system.
10. I have seen this type of take down before.
11. It was just prior to the major move in gold in the 70s wherein gold rose the most over the shortest period of time.
12. The operation of gold’s price is not for a short to profits as its market character speaks of deep pockets only governments can have. I suspect that battle for the survival of the euro might soon be reversed into the battle for dollar survival. Euroland, Russia and Asia from central banks to connected financial entities have been buyers of gold. The tables have shifted. The signs of the new triumvirate being on the offensive sits right in front of us.

This is the transition that I believe is at hand. This operation is from some mega interest not seeking to profit on a short, but to obtain the most gold possible for this market event which will play into 2015 to 2017.

Conclusion:

There is no top in gold. The gold price is going much higher than I originally anticipated. The long standing currency war has shifted now putting the dollar in harms way. Gold and those very special gold situations are going much higher. Borrowed money cannot be used without taking risk beyond reason.

Stay the course because what has so far occurred is only the appetizer.

Fiscal Cliff of tax increases Ahead – The End is Near!

President Barack Obama is due back in Washington early Thursday for a so called final effort to negotiate a deal with Congress to postpone the “fiscal cliff” of tax increases and government spending cuts set to begin next week. No specific bill dealing with this fiscal cliff was on the schedule in either the U.S. Senate or House of Representatives.

Speaking directly to sources on the Hill, things are not looking very good. Speaker of the House John Boehner (Office Phone Number: 202-225-0600) and the Republican establishment quietly retaliated against everyone who were on crucial House committees of strong fiscal conservatives, especially anyone who supported Ron Paul. Boehner is within 17 seats of losing the position of the Speaker of the House (legally, anyone can run for the Speaker of the House it need not be a member!). Boehner had a deal with Obama last year, but backed off when he thought it would personally cost him the position of the Speaker of the House. When he went back to Obama to try to cut a deal this time saying look we were so close last year, Obama said you should have taken the deal then.

Obama insists upon raising taxes on the rich following France. He does not get it that almost 70% of the national debt is interest! He is raising taxes of the productive portion of society not to help the poor, but the keep the debt rolling. That will reduce employment as has been the case in Europe. That 2 year old with a simple pocket calculator can figure out that eventually 100% will be consumed by interest. Spending programs will be cut to make sure interest payments keep flowing.

This not going to be HYPERINFLATION for that presumes spending keeps going and they just print to pay expenses. Instead, we are causing capital to withdraw from investment and this is producing STAGFLATION where costs are rising but economic growth is imploding.

Boehner purged fiscal conservatives from committees because he is trying to force the Republicans to play ball and keep it business as usual. January is coming up as a volatile month in so many markets, and this is the critical issue we have to come to grips with to survive. By 2016, we will have the FIRST opportunity for a THIRD PARTY to emerge in the USA and Boehner is doing his best to purge the fiscal conservatives from the Republicans. The “establishment” Republicans appear hopeless. The Democrats just want to go full force at the “rich” and have no clue what they are doing long-term. This is indeed a Fiscal Cliff we are facing. The end is certainly near and 2013 looks to be the year from hell ahead.

There is no indication that government will even listen in the USA in a respectful manner. Boehner has abandoned the mantle of Reagan and is only interested in placating the religious right while keeping the taxes low and spending flowing. There is just no long-term strategy at all.

Do to requests for a conference for the average person, as a public service this will be held in Philadelphia shortly. Many traders have requested a two-day training workshop in the USA rather than Shanghai. And still others want a World Economic Conference here on the East Coast. We will try to satisfy these demands. 2013 is going to be the Year from Hell! Perhaps the Maya were right that this would be the beginning of a seachange politically. It certainly could not get any worse.